Tuesday, October 11, 2005

I thought I'd left the 80s in the late 90s

I used to go every Friday night and most Saturdays to this place in Launceston called Sims.They started off playing really cool 'alternative' (I'm not sure what that means anymore) music.This was in the mid to late 90s. By the time I was granted my freedom, that is, moved out of my parents' home in 1998, Sims had started turning into a Tackyland 80s Pop Extravaganza.You have to remember that this was the late 90s and this kinda shit wasn't trendy yet. Wasn't quite retro cool. Not even Les Rhythmes Digitales was THAT hot at this point. Not as hot as he later became. And the 80s retro bubble hadn't quite blown out of proportion yet - not like it has now. The point is, Sims became a place of derision because they catered to the lowest and cheesiest common denominator.Anyway, I didn't like the music that much then, though I danced like a dancing fool regardless. Cut to the mid 00s:I'm still dancing to the same music I was then! But the music is acceptably cool now!So Tasmania finally gets into various forms of electronic dance muzak and the rest of Australia seems to be catching up with Tasmania's 80s revival! Seems like the 80s never really quite went out of fashion. (I knew this day would come, when musicians would run out of original ideas and styles and the retro fund they were pillaging from would become overdrawn. That is, would catch up with where they were at. Still there's room for invention there too.)I could (when they were still on) dance at a Daggy Disco or go to a Bite Party (happening this Saturday) in Melbourne and I can go to a Trash Dance in somewhere in New South Wales!Anyway, the highlight of my trip to This Is Not Art (TINA) in Newcastle was seeing Severed Heads perform and give a talk.So one of my youth fantasties has come true.Let's see what other fantasies I can make come true.